SEATTLE, Wash. — After trimming a tree, Angie Thompson twice put out her yard waste bin with branches pushing up the lid several inches.
Thompson, who is married to a KIRO 7 employee, said she thought she was doing the right thing by keeping the branches relatively short.
"We're responsible people, making sure everything was done properly, but I guess we didn't know the rules," she said.
Seattle city rules, it turns out, don't allow the lids of bins to be open at all.
Thompson noticed two $4.90 charges in January for extra yard waste because of those branches.
"To nickel and dime me when we already pay a lot for our yard waste," Thompson said.
It isn't hard to find examples of yard waste bins with the lids not shut.
"I drive down the streets all the time and I see all these people with their lids sticking up, and I think, there's $5, there's $5, there's $5, nobody knows," Thompson said.
When Thompson told us about her extra yard waste charge, KIRO 7 checked the Seattle Public Utilities website and found no mention that customers could be charged if their lids don't close.
After we contacted the city, officials added a warning on the yard waste page.
Why wasn't the information available earlier?
Solid Waste Director Timothy Croll said it was an oversight, and that the city would now also explain the charge on its annual recycling calendar.
"These days there's food waste in there so that's another reason to have the lid on tight," Croll said.
While the rules say the lid must be entirely closed, Croll said haulers are told to use their judgment about whether to charge customers for extra yard waste.
"If it's one little stick coming out they're not going to call that in or alert us about that," Croll said. "But if we have a bin where the branches are sticking up three feet above certainly that will be charged as extra."
City officials say there's no specific threshold for how far a lid must be open to get a charge.
Angie Thompson got a refund when she called, and city officials say any customer who feels unfairly charged should contact customer service.
The city says it collects about 250,000 units of extra yard waste each year.
Officials don't track how many of those are from overfilled bins, they think most are from bundles placed beside bins.
Thompson was charged back in January.
Since then, the charge for extra yard waste has risen to $5.20 as part of a rate increase.
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